My own experiments on animals have shown me how rapidly fatal even small quantities of chloroform are when injected into the circulation, and a similar remark is equally applicable to sulphuric ether. A few drops of these substances can very readily be injected into the circulation with impunity;[30] but the quantity must not be increased beyond a certain amount, far less than could possibly dissolve a single grain of cholesterine, otherwise immediate death follows the operation, by inducing a state of body closely resembling rigor mortis, from which the animals never recover. I am, therefore, completely at a loss to understand how these remedies can be of service in dissolving gall-stones in the living body; and as I make it a rule as seldom as possible to prescribe a remedy without a knowledge of its physiological action, I have not yet ventured on an empirical trial of the effects of sulphuric ether or chloroform administered internally in cases of gall-stones. For some remarks on the passage of biliary calculi, see page 123. [Footnote 30: Vide the Author's paper on a new method of producing diabetes artificially in animals, by the injection of stimulants--alcohol, ether, chloroform, ammonia, &c.--into the portal circulation. Comptes Rendus de la Societé de Biologie de Paris. 1853.] {122} Taraxacum has been widely used in hepatic disease associated with jaundice, and is believed to be particularly well adapted to cases arising from congestion. As in such cases I generally trust to more potent drugs, my experience with this remedy has been too limited to admit of my offering an opinion of its value. The majority of cases of jaundice from obstruction, are much less under the power of remedial agents than those arising from suppression, for we have here three distinct conditions to combat: Firstly,--The derangements originating in the absence of bile from the digestive canal. Secondly,--The morbid effects arising from its accumulation in the ducts, and consequent interruption to the hepatic functions. Thirdly,--The general poisonous action on the system, of the re-absorbed bile.